Mr. Bennett has been quite vocal about his ultra-nationalist, pro-settler positions regarding the governance of Israel.
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Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina Alliance, becomes Israel's new prime minister.
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In a landmark victory on Sunday, June 13, ultra-nationalist Israeli politician Naftali Bennett was sworn in as Israel's new prime minister, ousting long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, declared a vote of confidence in the incoming government, winning a majority by one vote.
Ending Netanyahu's era of dominance, the right-wing leader will lead a newly formed eight-party coalition to form a government alongside centrist Yair Lapid.
The two will take turns as prime minister, with Bennett serving as prime minister for two years and Lapid taking over in 2023.
While the leadership change certainly opens a new chapter in Israeli politics, Palestinians have expressed disinterest in political succession and expect Mr. Bennett to pursue the same right-wing policies as Mr. Netanyahu.
Bennett was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1972 to American parents who immigrated to Israel in 1967. Bennett's parents arrived in this country shortly after Israel's victory in the Six-Day War with its Arab neighbors, pursuing dreams of nationhood. Jewish state in Israel.
At the age of 18, Bennett joined the Israeli army and served for six years, achieving the rank of major.
He received his bachelor's degree in law and business administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996. Around the same time, Bennett began his career in technology.
He founded payment security provider company Cyota in 1999, which was later acquired by RSA Security Inc. for $145 million, making Bennett wealthy.
In 2009, he took the helm of software startup Soluto. Soluto was later acquired by US-based Asurion for $130 million.
Bennett's political career and relationship with Netanyahu
Bennett says the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, the day after he stepped down as CEO of a technology company, was a turning point in his career. Israel's failures in the battle spurred Bennett to turn to politics, and he joined then-opposition leader Netanyahu's Likud party.
He served as Likud's chief of staff from 2006 to 2008. During this period, he devised the party's education reforms and also led the party's primary election campaign in 2007.
In 2010, Bennett was appointed head of the Yesha Council, which oversees Jewish settlements in the West Bank, an area the community occupied after the Six-Day War.
In addition to leading the Pro-Settler Council, Bennett co-founded the “My Israel” movement with politician Ayelet Shaked that same year.
Bennett, along with Sheikh, resigned from Netanyahu's Likud in 2012 and joined the Jewish National Party.
Under Bennett's leadership, the Jewish National Party became part of the Israeli government in alliance with Likud and others.
Bennett served as Minister of Economy and Minister of Religious Affairs from 2013 to 2015 in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and then as Minister of Education from 2015 to 2019.
Breaking away from his purely religious Jewish family, Bennett founded the New Right Party in December 2018, billing it as a party open to both secular and religious people.
The New Right subsequently formed Yamina, an allied party with the Jewish Family and Religious Zionist Party, with the aim of contesting elections. New Right remains Yamina's only member after the other two parties left.
The party's main principles include opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, securing Israel as a Jewish land, belief in economic liberalism, and opposition to judicial activism.
The party aims to strengthen relations between religious and secular Jews and unite them in the Zionist agitation for an independent Jewish state of Israel.
Bennett became defense minister in Netanyahu's coalition government in 2019 and remained in that role until 2020.
As Minister of Defense, he signed orders to promote Jewish settlement in the West Bank and to expel leftists and “anarchists” from the region. jerusalem post It has submitted a report and enacted several strong measures against Hamas.
'I'm more right-wing than Netanyahu': Bennett's political position
Mr. Bennett has been quite vocal about his ultra-nationalist, pro-settler positions regarding the governance of Israel.
“I'm more right-wing than Bibi (Prime Minister Netanyahu), but I don't use hatred and polarization as a means of political promotion,” he said. era of israel During February.
Bennett's anti-Palestinian comments have repeatedly sparked controversy. The hard-liner has supported the death penalty for Palestinian extremists in the past. In 2013, Palestinians said that “terrorists should be killed, not released.”
Bennett has long advocated for Jewish religious and historical rights to the disputed West Bank. His political motives can be traced back to the days of the Yesha Council of settler representatives.
He refused to use the word “occupied” for the settlements, insisting that the land belonged to the Jews and that “there was no Palestinian state here.”
He also called for Israel's annexation of 60 percent of the West Bank in 2014. “What can Palestinians hope for? They already live the best life in the entire Arab world – they can’t be hanged for being gay, women are allowed to drive. ” he said at the time. Times of Israel reporting.
During the war that broke out between Israel and Palestine last month, the recently elected prime minister issued multiple statements defending the country's violence, which received widespread international condemnation.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the new coalition's alliance of loyal right-wing politicians with left-wing, centrist and Arab parties “the greatest electoral fraud” in the history of democracy.
A coalition of different political parties agreed to achieve one common objective: to remove the longest-serving prime minister from his post.
(Information provided by Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post)
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